Icky Thump
by CoconutMigration
Summary: Zolo has obsessive tendencies that've caused relationship problems before; This time he's fixated on a blonde girl he saw once in Axel, in turn, is also stuck on someone - Someone who's his best friend, who has a OnePiece/KH
1. Never Trust an Irishman edited

**Hey, Tessa here. I uploaded the first chapter of this fic without much thought, but after looking over it once again, I realized that there were all these little things that were annoying me. So I went back and edited a bunch of small things, including a few of the characters' names. Also I realized that I hadn't put in a disclaimer last time.**

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own nothing.**

**Warning: Mild swearing, mind-numbingly petty high-school drama.**

**I also wanted to say that the updates on this story will definitely be irregular, but with favorites and reviews come quicker chapters. Feel free to give me any suggestions or opinions, or even flames. I don't care as long as it's feedback :)**

**And, to all of my fellow AkuRoku fans, stay tuned for future chapters because you won't be disappointed! I know it's a little slow at first, but you've just gotta hang in there because the good things are worth waiting for.**

**So, without further adieu, I present to you: ICKY THUMP.**

Night was starting to fall, the setting sun washing over the balcony, transforming the girl's straight, blonde hair into a blaze of blinding gold. She was alone on the balcony, with the exception of a repulsive couple who wouldn't stop making out with each other, watching from afar as the lights in the city slowly blinked on, one after another. Donnikko didn't even know why she had let her friends drag her to this stupid dance, and now she cursed herself for believing that this event would be fun. Everyone inside was either an extreme douchebag or a creepy guy who had tried to hit on her, sadly failing at it. Looking in, she was disgusted that nothing had changed; There was still the same group of sweaty, slutty, and horny teenagers who Donnikko didn't want to associate herself with. Since this was a school function and she detested her fellow classmates, it was all the more reason to fake a migraine and have her mom pick her up. The prom was a joke, and the poor girl could only take so much of the forced polite banter that was exchanged between her and a few annoying acquaintances that had approached her out of sheer boredom or loneliness.

She folded her hands on the cracked, stone rail in front of her, thankful that it was mildly warm outside. Her strapless prom dress wouldn't offer much protection against the cold, no matter how fashionable it was. The dress itself was beautiful and unique, a masterpiece of clothing design. While everyone in the dance hall was wearing bright pinks, blues, reds, and purples with sequins, Nikko's dress was a dark, wispy gray with black, thorny roses growing crooked and overlapping each other. The underneath was a gray so dark that it could be mistaken for black, and the slightly lighter gray sheen that was sewn over it created an amazing, misty effect. Her shoes, unlike all of the other girls' obnoxiously expensive stilettos, had been purchased the week before at a flea market, and she had attained them for a mere four dollars. The tall, high-heeled boots were black with three zippers sewn around them, the real zipper running down the inside of them. As Donnikko had walked in to the decorated dance hall, blinded by glaring white strobe lights, she could feel everyone's eyes on her, smirking or sighing, wishing she would liven up her outfit colors a bit. The student body respected her, but they still didn't understand why she was so different.

And, honestly, neither did she.

The sad truth was that the blonde just didn't fit in. She had two friends that she sat with at lunch and that was it. While her fellow classmates spent their weekends at parties, Nikko spent hers in her room, organizing her Pokemon cards or playing Keyblade Master on her pink Nintendo DS. Yes, she was seventeen, but that didn't mean that she had to go and get wasted every Friday night. She was perfectly content on her own, Nikko told herself in a sad attempt to cheer herself up. In reality she was lonely and depressed, and coming to a dance filled with happy couples didn't help her mood one bit.

Bored and annoyed, Donnikko picked at the ivy that was slowly crawling up the balcony side, sinking into her thoughts and not noticing that someone else had slunk quietly out into the night, desperately breathing in the fresh air in an attempt to get the stench of teenage sweat out of his system.

Axel was incredibly irritated. The dance was only half-way over and already he had lost sight of his obnoxiously loud date, Xion. She, along with half of the girls at Hollow Bastion High, was one of the wanna-be emo girls who strived for attention by spreading rumors about themselves or saying that they wanted to commit suicide, the very type of girl he despised. She was cute, nice, and funny, but extremely fake, and just, in a nutshell, not Axel's type. All night, fake whores had immediately been drawn towards him, suffocating him as they clung to his arm and batted their mascara-covered eyelashes in his face.

And who could blame them? Standing at six feet two with a mane of rebellious red spikes for hair and donned in a dashing black tuxedo with a bright green tie to bring out his eyes, Axel O' Lavry was incredibly sexy. He walked the hallways of his school with an air of feminine grace about him, resembling a sleek, proud cat with his stubborn and sarcastic demeanor and his head held high. The entire female population of his school, Twilight Preparatory, was completely in love with him - And from the way the red-head acted, the feeling was mutual. Going to a different party every weekend, O'Lavry had quite the reputation and flirted with every girl he met, the good, the bad, and the ugly. He was known to sleep around and people constantly made snide comments about him, but Axel didn't care. He was the type of guy to do what he wanted, when he wanted, and didn't dwell on what others would think of his actions.

Unfortunately, _only_ fake whores were drawn to him, not knowing the one little fact that would break all of their hearts if discovered: Axel O'Larvy was truly and undeniably gay. His love belonged to a fiery little blondie named Roxas. There was one tiny problem, though, and she went by the name of Namine. Roxas's girlfriend. Roxas was straight, Axel's best friend, and many other obstacles prevented the red-head from fessing up his feelings. Besides, they were _best friends_. Axel was okay with the way things were now. He didn't want to fuck anything up.

What made Axel even more pissed off was that he had really wanted to come to this prom, hoping to meet new people and hang out with new friends. Xion was from Hollow Bastion, a small town full of racist hillbillies, pathetic emo kids, or ridiculous douchebags. Axel, coming from Twilight Prep, a private school where douchebag party-boys and disease-infested sluts had weed-parties on the weekends and where each kid's popularity depended on the amount of alcohol in his daddy's wine cellar, was disgusted to find that everyone from the other school was even more drug-happy then his own school. His cousin, Kairi, had introduced him to Xion, and she immediately started texting him non-stop until she finally asked him to go to prom with her. Axel didn't particularly want to go with her, but he wasn't some jerk that would say no, and she was cute anyways. Besides, he'd get to meet cool, exciting people who didn't judge him right off the bat, right? Wrong.

So now he was standing in the shadows on the far side of the balcony, fumbling for a Marbolo to ease his nerves. After a few seconds he managed to pull one cigarette out of his near-empty pack and, while searching for his lighter in one of his pockets, the red-head looked around. There were only three other people outside on the balcony with him, a couple that was sucking each other's faces off and - Holy shit, it was that girl! Axel dropped the cigarette in surprise and cursed his clumsiness, bending down to blindly grope for the cancer-stick in the dark. After several moments of failing to find it, he gave up and, shaking himself off, took another look at the girl.

Yeah, it was her alright. He'd recognize her long, blonde hair from anywhere, only - wait, did she dye the front? Yeah, she dyed the front bangs black, he realized. Oh man, was Zolo going to shit himself in excitement once Axel told him!

He pulled out his small red flip-phone and scrolled down to "Mossy :D" in his contacts, proceeding to call his best friend. After two excruciatingly long rings, the grass-head finally answered his phone.

"Hello?"

Axel took a deep breath. "Moss-Man, your dreams are about to come true."

Zolo sighed loudly, and the red-head could visualize him rolling his eyes. "What are you talking about, Axel?"

"Okay, so I'm at Hollow Bastion's Prom, right? And I walk out onto the balcony to smoke a cig, just wantin' to get a little fresh air! And guess who else is out here, standing not even twenty feet away from me?"

"Who?" Zolo asked, bored.

"That one chick from Hot Topic. The one you're in _looooooo-ooooove_ with," Axel drawled, lazily dragging out the word in a way that would usually infuriate his green-haired friend. But Zolo was too shocked to even utter a syllable. His mind, to put it simply, was blown.

"Zo? You there?"

ooOOoo

Zolo, Axel's green-haired, calm, collected, and fucking ripped best friend, was, in short, obsessed with a blonde girl, whom he dubbed "The Girl". He didn't know anything about her, not even her name or how old she was. All he knew was that her stormy, captivating gaze had taken his breath away while he was with Axel, looking for new ice-pick gauges at Hot Topic, a store that he absolutely despised, yet he shopped there all the time.

The Girl was shopping with her friend, "Gwen", Zolo overheard, who was at least a head taller than The Girl. The Girl was pretty short, about five foot four, he guessed. She was wearing rumpled blue jeans with a hole in each knee and a gray, scoop-necked long-sleeved shirt that had strange fleur-de-lis patterns running all over it in an even darker gray, her waist-length blonde hair lying flat against her back. Her necklace, he noted, was a pretty amber-colored stone that grew darker or lighter when it was turned a certain way. She was wearing black flip-flops.

The Girl had first glanced his way when she was rifling through a low shelf of band t-shirts (including the Gorillaz, Slipknot, and System of a Down, which Zolo took note of while he was in Stalker Mode). He had been following her around the store for about ten minutes, discreetly turning to look at the nearest clothes rack if she so much as turned his way. Axel was off looking at a pair of grey skinny jeans that looked about two sizes too small for him, so Zolo couldn't alert his friend of The Girl. She wouldn't have been O'Lavry's type anyways, the greenette decided, a bit hopefully. Zolo didn't really like whores all that much, unlike his fellow spiky-haired friend.

So anyways, The Girl had finally looked Zolo's way, her dark blue/gray eyes catching his brown ones. Her eyes widened slightly and she quickly turned away, lightly blushing. The idea of having mere eye contact with a cute guy embarrassed her, and she purposely kept her gaze fixated on the rack of t-shirts in front of her, determined not to catch the dude's eye again. After a few seconds of burning curiosity, she looked up again from her crouched stance on the floor, actually pausing to get a good look of the guy.

He was pretty tall, she noted, but then again, she was very short and currently located on the floor. His short hair was dyed a strange shade of green that reminded The Girl of the leaves on a summer tree, a color that would result by mixing sea-foam green and dark green, she thought. The Boy was standing with his back towards her, rifling messily through a rack of flannels, his head slightly turned to the left. The Girl could see that he worked out a lot, the curves and contours of his muscles showing through his faded Black Sabbath shirt. She also noticed that The Boy had a small gauge in each ear and three earrings in his left ear, three gold teardrops that dangled delicately from said ear. His brows, or the brow that she could see, was furrowed in what looked like either intense frustration or determination, and the stoic expression on his face made the mystery guy slightly intimidating. The Girl was now aware that she was staring at this random boy, that of which who looked about seventeen, and she quickly moved to the clearance section on the other side of the store in hopes of finding something of good quality that wouldn't cause her to go bone broke.

Zolo had felt her gaze on his skin, and uneasiness prickled over his body. He was most definitely interested in her, having been stalking The Girl since the moment she set foot in the store. The green-haired teenager's mind worked differently than that of his egotistical and extremely flirty friend; While Axel just went right up to someone and engaged in conversation, Zolo would stand on the sidelines and wait to be introduced or noticed, either because he was too lazy or he was too shy. And that was exactly what was happening now.

Sighing, he cautiously peeked over his shoulder to where the girl was previously kneeling, but he was shocked to find that she had vanished. Going into a state of minor panic, Zolo frantically around the store. A flash of gold caught his eye and - Ah, there she was. Instantly his heart rate slowed down and he took a deep breath, slowly making his way towards the display of gauges near the clearance rack. Maybe if he just causally bumped into her and apologized, then he could finally approach The Girl instead of ogling her from afar. His heart rate started to rise as he slowly made his way over to the small girl and -

Her tall friend, "Gwen", called out to her from across the store.

"You ready to check out?" the tall teenager yelled, her voice dashing all of Zolo's hopes.

The Girl, not two feet from where he was standing, turned her head towards the voice, replying with a vigorous nod. She then swung around abruptly and promptly crashed into him, her head connecting with his broad chest while she simultaneously dropped her clothes.

"S-sorry!" she stuttered, bending to pick up her clothes while she looked up at The Boy towering in front of her, cursing her complete stupidity. This is why she never approached anyone - she would either end up saying something incredibly awkward and/or stupid or she would hurt herself or the person on accident.

"S'okay," Zolo murmured, stooping down to grab a shirt that The Girl had misplaced and hoping to catch a glimpse of her beautiful blue-slate irises. The Girl, much to the disappointment of the green-haired boy, had her eyes glued to the floor, nervously and frantically scooping up the dropped merchandise, hoping to run away as quickly as she could before she died of embarrassment.

Zolo stood slowly, looking at The Girl's shirt that he now held in his calloused palms.

"Audioslave," he observed dumbly, mentally facepalming himself for stating the obvious. The Girl looked up sharply, momentarily forgetting her flustered stance, and straightened herself up.

"Yeah," she replied, glad that someone else her age had heard of the band. "D'you like them?"

"Of course!" Zolo smiled warmly, elated that the two had something in common. "I have all of their albums."

"Oh," The Girl said, relieved that The Boy's opinion was positive, not negative. "I only have two of them, but they're still great."

She looked at his shirt then, and, after a sudden burst of courage, decided to contribute to the conversation.

"I like your shirt," she added cautiously, not sure of what exactly to say. This was the first time that she had ever experienced an encounter with a beautiful, strange boy that didn't go to Hollow Bastion.

Zolo's face split into a wide grin, amazed that this girl had heard of his favorite band. "I love Black Sabbath. Ozzy's pretty amazing."

The Girl returned his wide, toothy smile, revealing to him that she had miniature fangs and a set of perfectly straight, white teeth. It may be stupid to say, but for some unknown reason Zolo fell in love with her fangs. They were _awesome_.

"I like the bass the best," she replied, casually flipping her extremely long, blonde hair out of her face. The Girl had split ends and her hair was parted down the middle, causing an aura of hippie-ness to emanate from her. "I have one of their old tapes that I listen to in the car. It has all their good songs, the ones before Ozzy left the band, like, the pre-Dio stuff."

Zolo had realized by now that The Girl had great taste in music, listening to the same genres as him, specifically older rock. He was about to ask her if she listened to The Doors when her infuriating friend with the bad timing barged into their conversation.

"Hey, it's time to go," Gwen said, tapping her friend on the shoulder. _Stupid wench, _he thought, cursing Gwen's bad timing. The Girl nodded, then turned back to Zolo.

"Er...," she trailed off, looking at the shirt still grasped in his hands. Zolo mentally stabbed himself and handed back the shirt, brushing his large fingers over a patch of pale skin that peeked out form underneath her sleeves. Her wrists were really small, he noticed.

She tucked the article of clothing back into her small pile, running her fingers through her hair anxiously.

"Thanks... and, er, sorry for, uh, running into you."

"Oh, uhm, yeah, no problem," he mumbled, painfully acknowledging the fact that the girl of his dreams was walking away.

And then Zolo had the biggest stalker moment of his entire life.

He took a picture of her with his phone.

Yes, yes, as strange and completely humiliating as it is to admit, he snapped a photo of The Girl with his cell when she standing in line at the check-out behind two other customers, idly observing the many shirts tacked onto the walls. She looked... detached from the world, he thought. Like Jack and Meg on the album cover of Icky Thump, a White Stripes album. Like The Girl was unaware of everyone around her, in her own little bubble. Or maybe it was the opposite, and she looked perfectly content with the world around her, one with the world, and seemed to be contemplating life itself. She looked wise and thoughtful, a Zen-like expression on her face.

Or maybe he was just overanalyzing her expression. Whatever.

When a dazed Zolo returned to Axel and first showed him the picture, his friend had died of laughter at the pure stalker-vibe of the whole situation. But then Axel promised Zolo that if by any chance he ever saw the girl, he would alert the greenie of it right away.

But what were the chances of that happening, right?

I mean, the odds were one in a million! Astronomical!

... Right?

ooOOoo

Zolo awoke from his amazed flashback to find Axel's voice blaring in his ear.

"Zohhhhhhhhhhhhh-lohhhhhhhhh," the annoying red-head said, drawing out his name. "Earth to Zolo!"

Snapping out of his dazed stupor at the sound of his voice, Zolo quickly went into action-mode. Rapid-fire questions were shot at Axel so fast that he didn't know what hit him.

"Is she with someone?"

"No, she-"

"Have you talked to her yet?"

"I-"

"Did you tell her about me?"

"No, jesus, slow down! I didn't even get to-"

"What did you say to her, Axel? I swear to God, if you fucked up or something, so help me-"

"SLOW DOWN, MAN!" Axel shout-whispered into the phone. "I haven't even talked to her yet. As soon as I saw her I called you." He chuckled, picturing his normally calm and collected friend in a panic over The Girl.

There was a short silence, followed by a question. "Do you know it's her?"

Axel snorted. "Of course I do, dumbass, you only used to talk about her ALL THE TIME-"

"Seriously, Axel. This is crazy. Crazy weird." Zolo sighed. "Are you _suuure_ it's her?"

"Dude," replied the ginger. "I'd bet my fucking life on it." This was followed by an even longer pause.

"... What's she wearing?"

Axel laughed, his sparkly white canines twinkling briefly in the darkness. "What the hell, ma-"

"Just answer the damn question," an annoyed Zolo growled.

After taking a few moments to analyze The Girl's clothes, Axel answered, "She's wearing a strapless dress with black roses on it and she has on some weird zipper-boots that look like they just came out of a Resident Evil movie. You happy?"

Zolo paused, constructing a mental image of what his friend had just told him. In his mind, The Girl was wielding dual pistols while wearing a ripped prom dress spattered with zombie blood. _Resident Evil_, he thought distantly, not really paying attention to the fact that the fantasy was ridiculous. He shook his head, coming back to his senses.

"Go talk to her," he ordered, not wanting to miss the one-in-a-lifetime chance of the perfect girl.

"What?" Axel sputtered. "What do you want me to say?"

"Anything!" the green-haired teen shot back desperately. "Just make sure you give her my number!"

His friend shook his head. "Will do." He shut the phone, ending the conversation and turning his attention to the plain-looking girl on the balcony.

_Oh Jesus, here we go._


	2. Small World

**Back again! I know, I know, to the one person who might be reading this, I haven't updated in a while. So what, sue me.**

**Just kidding. Don't sue me.**

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own anything.**

**Warning: Mild Swearing, Mind-numbingly petty high-school drama, and a ton of dialogue. Whatever, it's an introductory chapter.**

"Hey."

A startled Donnikko her head around to look at the source of the deep voice, an extremely hot dude with vibrant red hair styled like Sonic the Hedgehog's.

"Uhhh... hi?" she half-stated, half-asked in confusion, suddenly self-conscious.. Who was this guy?

"Yeah. So..." Axel waved him hands in front of him in a desperate attempt to come up with something to talk about. "Uhhh... nice night, huh?" He then literally facepalmed at the absurdity of the topic and decided to backtrack and just get to the point. Before Nikko could come up with an answer that was sure to be equally awkward and lame, Axel went for the best way to explain himself: blatant truth and no bullshit.

"Okay, so..." he drew in a deep breath, trying to find his words, and realized something: He didn't know her name!

"Wait, what's your name?" he asked.

"Er, Nikko," the blonde replied nervously. "Who are you?"

Yay, explanation/rant time. "Okay, so this is all gonna sound really crazy, but whatever. My name's Axel, A-X-E-L, got it memorized?"

Nikko just stared at him strangely without answering, so he decided to just skip the introductions and get on with it.

"My friend Zolo's been looking for you for a while because he saw you in Hottopic once and talked to you and thought you were his soul mate or something." Axel shook in head and snorted. "Can you believe that guy? But anyways," he continued, "Anyways, I recognized you from this picture he has and I was like, Holy poop on a stick, It's that one girl! So I called Zolo and I was like, Hey, I found that one girl! And he was like, Holy crap! And he wanted me to come over here and confess his love for you or something. Stupid, right?" Here he laughed dryly. "So, yeah, I guess that's-"

"What?" Donnikko croaked in disbelief. "What the fuck are you talking about?" The Axel guy grinned at her bad language. _It's like Roxas all over again,_ he thought. Then he turned impatient with her lack of understanding the current situation at hand.

"Zolo? I don't know if you remember him or not. Green hair, 'bout as tall as me, kinda has a long pointy nose?" To get his point across (pun intended), Axel gestured wildly, waving his finger in front of his face, but that just made him look like an elephant.

"Uh. No," the girl deadpanned. "I honestly have no idea what you're talking about."

Facepalming for the second time in ten minutes, Axel was about to launch into another detailed explanation about Zolo and Nikko's encounter (Zolo had told him everything) when he had the greatest idea ever.

Well, that was an exaggeration. But it was a pretty damned good idea. He could just give Zolo her number, have Zolo call her, and then let Zolo do the talking.

"Actually, you know what? I'm not doing a very good job of explaining everything like ol' Mossy wanted me to, so how 'bout I just give him your number?" Axel propositioned.

Nikko shook her head. "I don't have a cell phone," she sighed, getting quite annoyed with the so-called "Axel". Suddenly, suspicion flared up out of nowhere. "This isn't a joke, is it?" she spat. "Because this is _not_ funny in the slightest."

"Geez, I wouldn't joke about something so important to Mossy," the redhead denied, running a hand through his hair. He thought a bit, then said, "Okay, what if you talk to him right now? Like, will you talk to him if I call him from my cell?"

Donnikko hesitated a moment, then nodded reluctantly. "Yeah!" Axel did a victory fist-pump. He didn't screw up! What a first! After dialing Moss-Man's number, he handed the phone to his new acquaintance eagerly and pressed speaker-phone. She didn't even have time to think of what to say before the phone was answered on the first ring.

"What did she say?" a guy's voice shot out at her like a coiled cobra striking out at his prey.

"Er... uh, hi?" she half-asked again.

"Who is this? Xion?" Zolo demanded. "Give the phone back to A-"

"It's Nikko," she interrupted. "The girl that Axel said you were looking for or something? I don't really know what he was babbling about-" she ignored the sound of the redhead's indignant "Hey!" in the background, "-but he said that you met me in Hottopic once. Or something."

There was no answer on the other line.

"Uh... hello?" Nikko's brow furrowed in confusion.

"You... you're name is Nikko?" Zolo asked weakly.

"Yeah, I don't really know what's going on or who you are or anything."

Zolo drew in a shaky breath and tried to jog her memory. "W-we met in Hottopic and we talked about music like Ozzy and Audioslave. And I was wearing a Black Sabbath shirt. Remember? Because you had accidentally bumped into me and dropped all your stuff..." Zolo trailed off expectantly. But he needn't have worried.

Nikko stood there, mouth agape, slightly dazed. "I remember you! I can't believe this... Oh my God, I was there with Gwen and then I basically embarrassed myself in front of you, and you - And I - And we-" She broke out into peals of nervous laughter. "Wow, this is crazy."

Zolo let out his breath and smiled a goofy smile into the phone. So she remembered. Great, great, great.

Then she stopped laughing abruptly and instead frowned. "What did he mean you had a picture of me?"

Thoughts did a 180. Shit, shit, shit. What could he say? What should he say? Shit, shit, shit-

"When you were in the checkout line, he took a picture of you with his phone. Major stalker, right?" Axel supplied with a giant grin on his face. Nikko's eyes grew to the size of fucking dinner plates. What the fuck?

Zolo faintly heard Axel say something in the background, only comprehending the words "phone" and "stalker" due to the red-head's shitty speaker. Man, he was going to fucking _cut_ Axel. There was silence on the other line, and then-

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!" Nikko threw her head back and laughed in disbelief at the situation. "Wow, you took a freaking picture of me?" She burst out into more giggles as she struggled to form coherent words. "That's... That's... HILARIOUS!"

"Uh..." Zolo was slightly hurt. And kind of devastated by her reaction. Was this good or bad? Was she about to hang up on him?

"I mean," she sobered up quickly, "not hilarious. Well, yeah, hilarious, but not like a freaked out type of hilarious. Just, like, this is the weirdest fucking thing that's ever happened to me and, I don't know how to explain it..." She tried to rein in her intelligence.

"I'm flattered." Nikko finally spit out. That pretty much summed it up. And she was. She remembered this dude, and recalled how beautiful he was. She even remembered his earrings and gauges. For days, weeks, months after the incident, Donnikko's thoughts were only of green hair and rumpled jeans. But time eventually corrodes the memory, and after a year she forgot his face, reminiscing only on a haze of sea-green hair and clear, tan skin.

"So... Zolo, right?" she confirmed, tasting the name on her tongue. It was quite the unusual name; She had never heard it before.

"Yeah, Roronoa Zolo. I go by my last name," he said, nervously clearing his throat. "Nikko..." he mumbled. _What a pretty name._

An involuntary smile crept onto her face. "Yeah," Nikko said, winding her long hair round her finger. "It's short for Donnikko. Donnikko Donnatella."

"Cool."

There was an awkward silence.

"So, what school do you go to?" Nikko asked hesitantly. She wasn't very good at making small-talk.

"Oh, I go to Twilight Preparatory School. Same as Axel."

The blonde raised her eyebrows. "My brother goes to that school. He's a year older than me, a junior. Do you know Roxas Addonexus?"

Axel, who was barely listening to the conversation and was currently preoccupied with lighting another cigarette, looked up in surprise at the mention of his crush's name. "Roxas? Angry little emo blonde Roxas?" he asked excitedly. "He's my best friend!"

Donnikko shook her in disbelief at Axel. "You're the annoying ginger he talks about?" she asked, surprised. "Wow, what a coincidence. He talks about you all the time on the phone." Axel's stomach did a backflip as he processed the girl's latest comment. Roxas talked about him? All the time? Roxas mentioned _him_? Roxas talked about-

"Roxas is cool," Zolo supplied politely, interrupting the spontaneous combustion that was taking place inside Axel's head. "I don't really know him as well as Ax does, but Axel's good friends with him."

"Small world," Nikko whistled.

The greenette furrowed his brow, thinking. "So you're a sophomore?"

"What? I can't hear you." O'Lavry's crappy phone was cutting out.

Zolo raised his voice so she could hear him. "I said, so are you a sophomore?"

"Oh, yeah," she replied quickly. "Yeah, a sophomore at Hollow Bastion High. Are you in my brother's grade?" He shook his head even though she couldn't see him, a funny habit that he had. "No, me and Ax are seniors."

Axel shook his head, still overwhelmed by the fact that Roxas talked about him. "So _you're_ Roxy's sister? I mean, he said he had a sister named Nikki or something, but he didn't really say anything more than that..." Axel paused and scratched his scalp, processing the information. Then he realized something. "Wait, why do you guys have different last names?"

"Oh, um, well, it's kind of..." She stopped, trying to figure out how to explain it. "We're half-siblings," she said. "We have different dads. Roxas lives with his dad, and I live with my mom."

There was a short silence, then Zolo spoke, confused. "I thought Roxas's dad was gay. I always thought he was adopted or something."

Nikko was about to explain further, but Axel beat her to it. "His dad's gay now, but he didn't always used to be," Axel said helpfully. "When Roxas was a little kid his dad came out of the closet and his parents got a divorce. Roxas moved in with his dad, his mom found a new guy. Thus, Roxas' sister was born!" Axel thrust his finger into the sky dramatically, striking a superhero pose. Then he turned to Nikko. "At least, that's what Roxas told me."

"Yeah, you're right," she said, bewildered, "but I didn't think Roxas would've told you that. He doesn't really like to tell anybody about the whole thing. It's kind of a tender subject." The blonde smiled at Axel. "I guess he really trusts you." Her comment made Axel's face turn as red as his hair and his brain had another miniature freak-out. He coughed awkwardly and exhaled a cloud of smoke, hoping that he didn't look as happy as he felt, and decided to change the subject to the first thing that popped into his head.

"She dyed her hair." His tone was almost accusatory as he took another drag on his cigarette.

Zolo's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. "WHAT?"

"Who?" Nikko asked, confused by the sudden topic change.

"Whaddya mean who?" Axel smirked. "You, of course."

"Oh," she faceplamed. Then, after a brief pause: "What's wrong with my hair?"

Nikko wasn't girly by any means, but she was very touchy about her hair. And her nails.

"What color is it now?" Zolo asked, baffled by the blonde's actions.

"It's still my natural blonde, I just dyed the underneath and the bangs black," she explained testily.

The phone beeped. Axel anxiously took the phone and looked at the text message.

**Where are you? I can't find you anywhere. Did you leave?**

"What was that noise?" Zolo asked.

"Ugh, Xion sent me a text," he groaned. "I thought I had lost her."

Donnikko's head snapped up, her eyes narrowed. "Xion? Xion Smith?"

Axel nodded, grudgingly answering the black-haired girl's message as he did so.

_**I'm out on the balcony, getting some fresh air.**_

"I just sent her a message. She'll be out here in a minute." He turned to the blonde. "Yeah, Xion Smith. I'm pretty sure she's a grade above you. Are you friends with her or something?"

Nikko clenched her fists. "We _used_ to be friends, unfortunately. If you don't mind, I'd like to leave before she gets out here."

"No, wait, don't leave yet," Zolo replied indignantly. "We didn't even get to talk, really."

Nikko smiled. "Just add me on Facebook," she giggled. "Or don't you have one?"

Zolo spit out a rapid-fire, "No, I have one!" and followed it up with a, "I'll add you tonight."

"Okay," she grinned, twisting her hair around her finger, when she remembered that any minute Xion, her arch-nemesis, would come barreling out onto the now barely-lit balcony, heels clicking obnoxiously on the stone floor. "But I have to go now. Talk to you later, Zolo." She hung up, mumbled a rushed, "Thanks, I'll add you on Facebook, see ya," and rushed back into the seething crowd of people, hoping not to run into the black-haired, blue-eyed girl whom had once been Nikko's best friend. Unfortunately, life has a twisted sense of humor, and Nikko collided with someone in her attempt to get back into the dance hall. It was Xion, who had been hobbling precariously on five-inch heels at record speed, determined to get some alone time with her red-headed date, now sprawled on her ass on the edge of the dance floor, her angry blue eyes glittering with hatred at the sight of her former friend. Nikko, on the ground from the force of the impact, got up and shook herself off, averting her eyes from Xion's gaze. Xion stood as well, eyes like hot knives, and fixed her dress.

"Watch where you're going," she spat and shoved past the blonde, her words boiling Donnikko's insides.

Nikko looked up, her own expression as straight as could be.

"Fuck you." The two words spilled effortlessly from her tongue, and she walked away with no regrets as Xion mouth moved like a gaping fish out of water. That bitch had got what was coming to her. Plus, the look on Xion's face made Nikko feel better than she had in a long time.

ooOOoo

"See ya," Zolo muttered dejectedly into the receiver as words **Call Ended** blinked on the screen. Then he raced to his computer to add Donnikko Donnatella to his friend's list. So, she was related to Roxas. Thank God that the world was small. He was extremely curious, though. What did the blonde have against Xion?


End file.
